2006 World Cup Winner Mauro German Camoranesi's Career Comes To An End

By Riccardo Di Julio

Presse Sports-USA TODAY Sports

Time goes by for everyone, even for great individuals. With this, the career of another 2006 World Cup winner is finally coming to an end as Mauro German Camoranesi will be retiring by the end of this season. The former Juventus player, now at Racing de Avellaneda, will say goodbye to a marvelous 19 year adventure in professional soccer.

The retirement has been announced by the player himself in an interview to Fox Sports in which he justified his decision on the continuous struggles with his left knee. “I decided to finally hang my boots on the wall by June because it’s very frustrating not being able to train for injury problems. Certainly, if I have to be laying down when my teammates are on the pitch, I might as well not play anymore,” he said.

Almost unexpectedly at the beginning of his career, the 37-year-old had the luck of living the dream of every soccer player by winning the FIFA World Cup. In his case, the achievement happened as a so-called Oriundo as he did it being a member of a national team, Italy, different from the country he was born in, Argentina.

Despite this, Camoranesi had the merit of being a strong point of reference for the Azzurri. He was a starter in most games, including both the semifinal and final against Germany and France, respectively. Along with being the most capped player out of the 38 Oriundi in Nazionale’s history, he also became the seventh player born outside of Italy to win the World Cup with this country.

Just like his former teammates Fabio Cannavaro, Massimo Oddo, Marco Materazzi, Alessandro Nesta, Gennaro Gattuso and Filippo Inzaghi, Camoranesi has already planned to become a professional manager right after retirement. The hope is for him to be able to relive, as a coach, the magical moments experienced as a player.

After the retirement of the Argentine-born midfielder, there will only be 13 players remaining from the 2006 Italian golden generation still playing, including Gianluca Zambrotta and Alessandro Del Piero, currently at Chiasso and Sidney.